Wire rope



Patented Oct. 8, 1929- UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE WALTER F. iMUNlFOBD, OF WORCESTER,MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO THE AMERI- CAN STEEL AND WIRE COMPANY OF NEW JERSEY, A'CQRPORATION OF NEW JERSEY WIRE ROPE No Drawing This invention relates to improvements in steel or ferrous metal wirestrands andica bios, and has for its object the provision of articles of this class in which the surface of each of the individual wires of the article are lubricated by being impregnated with a dry lubricant such as graphite during their drawing operations, whereby the internal stresses and wear are greatly reduced in the rality of draftsin which graphite is used as a lubricant. After the blank has been reduced by being drawn through a predetermined number of drafts, it is heat treated to soften the blank and remove the strains caused by the previous drawing operations, and thenagain drawn through successive drafts, in which graphite is again used as a lubricant, to reduce the wire to afinished size.

The use of graphite as a lubricant causes the surface of the blank and finished wireto be impregnated with graphite and results in several advantages. in the drawing operations as well as in the finished Wire and articles made from the wire.

Wire drawn with graphite may be heat treated and again drawn tofinished size without cleaning, which results ineliminat-- ing acid brittleness in the finished wire, and by eliminating this cleaning step the cause for pits in'the finished wire, which result from over cleaning, is .also eliminated.

Wire drawn with graphite as a lubricant holds is si'ze better than wire drawn with soap or other lubricant, due to the graphite furnishing a better lubricant and preventing excessive wear of the dies.

Wire drawn with graphite as a lubricant,

, when reduced to a finishedlsize, has its surface impregnated with graphite, "so that its Application filed December 17, 1926. Serial No. 155,553.

entire surface is lubricated and, therefore,

when the wire is laid up spirally to form a strand, rope, or cable, each of the wires will have a lubricated surface so that the wires 'may move on each other 'with a'minimum of friction, thus reducing wear, and internal stresses in the article thus laid up to a minimum, and at the same time thegraphite impregnated surfaces of the wires will resist corrosion and rust so that the life of the arti-' cle will be materially lengthened.

While I have described a certain specific embodiment of my invention, it will be understood that I do not wish to be limited thereto, since various modifications may be made without departing from the. scope of my invention as defined in the appended claims.

1. As an article of manufacture, a strand, rope or cable composed of a plurality of ferrous metalwires laid up spirally, each of said wires having its surface impregnated with I my name.

WALTER F. MUNFosD. 

